The present invention relates to a container with nipple attachment for feeding infants. In particular, the present invention relates to a container which heats the food within the container and allows the nipple attachment to be enclosed within the container.
There are a significant number of prior art references relating containers with nipple attachments thereon for allowing infants and juvenile children to suckle a food item from the container. As used herein, a nipple attachment for a xe2x80x9cjuvenilexe2x80x9d differs from that for an infant only in that the juvenile nipple attachment has a larger aperture to allow for a larger flow of fluid. Also as used herein, the term""s food item, container contents, liquid, or beverage are considered equivalent and may be used interchangeably. Many prior art containers with nipple attachments may be considered xe2x80x9cbaby bottlesxe2x80x9d which have a size and shape considerably different from beverage containers used by older children and adults. Typically, a beverage to be consumed by an infant must be transferred from the original beverage container into the baby bottle. This procedure is time consuming and is prone to spills and other problems which require subsequent cleanup activities. It would be desirable to provide an economical container which has an integral nipple attachment and the beverage already stored in the container. It would also be desirable for the container to be a standard size, such as the size of the common twelve ounce cylindrical soda can (approximately 12 cm in height and 6.5 cm in diameter), so that existing canning equipment could process such containers.
Another desirable aspect of a beverage container for an infant would be a means of warming the beverage to approximately 21 to 43xc2x0 C., however in some applications, the temperature may be higher such as to approximately 55xc2x0 C. There exist many self-contained heating modules for beverage containers, for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,461,867 and 5,626,022, both to Scudder. There even exist attempts to incorporate self-heating modules for use in conjunction with baby bottles, for example U.S. Pat. No. 6,123,065 to Teglbjarg and U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,165 to Creighton. However, Teglbjarg actually stores the nipple in a separate compartment in the bottom of the container and requires the user to fix the nipple to the upper opening in the beverage container. Creighton provides a bottle with a nipple already attached, but actually incloses the bottle in a separate heating container. Both Teglbjarg and Creighton require oversized containers which would be far more expensive to manufacture than a standard sized soda can.
It is apparent that neither Teglbjarg nor Creighton, nor any other prior art device has provided a beverage container with an integral nipple attachment which may be assembled using far more cost effective modem canning manufacturing and sterilization methods. There are many problems in prior art baby bottles, which if overcome, would provide a much more commercially viable product. For example, the baby bottles should provide a manner of pre-attaching the nipple to the container while allowing the nipple, container and its contents to be enclosed and sized such that the container may be stored at room temperature for long periods of time. The aperture in the nipple should be sealed to prevent the beverage from oozing out of the nipple and forming an unsightly and messy film about the nipple. Nevertheless, the aperture in the end of nipple should be easily openable.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a container with a nipple attachment which may be manufactured using standard canning methods.
It is an object for the nipple attachment to be pre-attached and removably enclosed within the beverage container.
It is an object to allow the nipple attachment to be sterilized at the same time the beverage in the container is sterilized.
It is an object to allow the nipple attachment to remain clean and sterile after canning.
It is an object to allow the container to be easily opened and the nipple positioned for use with a minimum of effort.
Finally, it is an object to provide a thermic module allowing the container to be self-heating or self-cooling.
The present invention provides a container for nursing infants. The container includes an interior with a first end (or top end) opening into the interior. A flexible nipple attaches across the opening and is positioned such that at least a portion of the nipple extends into said interior of the container. A container lid is then positioned over the flexible nipple and encloses the interior of the container.
In addition, the present invention includes a second end (or bottom end) with internal walls extending upwards toward the top end and thereby forming an internal cavity in the container. A thermic module is then positioned in this internal cavity.